Baroness Morris of Bolton begins her New Year message as President of Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) as follows:
In 1984, a group of doctors and humanitarians, horrified by the massacre of Palestinian civilians they had witnessed in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Lebanon, grouped together to form Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP). For them, medical relief wasn’t just about saving lives, but was a tangible act of solidarity with a people who had suffered so much for so long.
Forty years later, amid the heartbreaking scenes we are witnessing in Gaza, the future for Palestinians appears bleaker and more uncertain than ever before. Families have been torn apart, homes destroyed, and countless lives shattered. The healthcare system is on its knees. Two million people are now hungry.
We can’t turn on our TVs or radios without a daily report of more civilians being killed – :children, journalists, healthcare workers, staff of UN agencies and NGOs. The Liberal Democrats are the only national party in the UK to have unequivocally called for a ceasefire. The majority of Tory MPs seem intent on egging on the Israeli war machine. Labour is more divided, but its leadership has lost its moral compass – as so often happens with that party on international issues. This interview with Keir Starmer illustrates the point.
What can we do as a small party in Parliament to influence the direction of travel? The situation looks dire. Israeli PM Netanyahu seems determined to carry on destroying Gaza and indiscriminately killing Palestinian civilians so he can declare victory over Hamas and complete his revenge for the frightful horrors perpetrated on October 7th. Members of his cabinet – led by Ben Gvir – are calling for Gaza to be cleansed of Palestinians and settled by Israelis.
In addition, in the West Bank, Israeli settlers have escalated attacks, murders and rampant destruction of Palestinian land and property, unchecked by the IDF and supported by powerful Israeli government ministers, Itamir Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich.
What is just as disturbing is the attitude of many Israelis towards Palestinians. My must read/listen item of the Christmas period was an interview by Owen Jones with Gideon Levy. Levy is the son of Holocaust survivors. He served in the Israeli army and has become one of Israel’s leading journalists. He has spent much of his time in the West Bank covering and criticising the practices of settlers, the Israeli army and successive Israeli governments. It is well worth listening to this interview which sadly demonstrates how the dehumanisation of Palestinians has become accepted by the majority of Israeli citizens. Levy argues that only external pressure from abroad is likely to change Israel’s treatment of Palestinians and end its illegal occupation (something quite explicitly recognised by our party when it passed resolution F39 in 2021).
Two of my least favourite listens of recent weeks have been an interview (in French)with Belgian TV and a speech in Germany, both by Yair Lapid the Leader of Yesh Atid, our supposed sister party in Israel. Uncompromising in his support of the present military assault, he showed absolutely no remorse or sympathy for the suffering of Palestinians at the hands of Israel and in the TV interview was also questioning the idea of a separate state for Palestinians.
In 2003 our Party was the only one to take a strong and moral position on the Iraq war. The Party was almost totally united on this – only Paddy Ashdown and a few others thought differently. After some initial hesitation Charles Kennedy played a leading role in the biggest anti-war demonstration; and, as a matter of fact, 2005 was our best election year since the 1920s. Many people who are still active in the party joined because of our stand.
Every time we debate Israel/Palestine at our party conferences there is an overwhelming majority in favour of motions calling for change, calling for recognition of Palestine parallel to that of Israel and calling for justice. Our most recent debate in 2021 produced proposals to bring about change – the clear implication being that without external pressure Israel was unlikely to make any changes in the situation on the ground. For decades now we have had British and American governments reasserting that the occupation of the Palestinian territories is illegal under international law, that settlements are unlawful, that the treatment of “prisoners”, especially child prisoners, is illegal etc. etc. But Israel knows this is not serious and can be ignored without fear of consequence. The US in particular thwarts international efforts to stop the current war, while at the same time urging Israel to observe international law. The double-speak is outrageous and it’s time that a British Government dissociated itself from the US administration on this. It could cause seismic shock waves in the US where there is growing horror in Biden’s own party at what is happening with American arms and money.
Another must-listen-to speech is Pastor Rev Munther Isaac’s Christmas address from Bethlehem criticising Western hypocrisy and silence and complicity of the churches in what is happening to the Palestinians in Gaza.
I have believed for years that external pressure is what is needed to force change in Israel and get the Israeli public to wake up to the enormity of what successive governments are doing, but have hesitated to urge full-blown divestment and sanctions on Israel and have felt that the sanctions should be on those activities which help the illegal occupation: military aid, trade with settlements etc. Listening to the Gideon Levy interview I am shocked to hear an Israeli journalist arguing for full-blown sanctions on Israel as being the only way to bring about change. Sadly, I fear he may be right.
In the short term we need to keep up the pressure on the British Government to press for a ceasefire and peace negotiations premised on recognition of both Israeli and Palestinian rights in international law (including the right to a Palestinian state on the totality of the Occupied Palestinian Territory). To that end members of Lib Dem Friends of Palestine and the Lib Dem Muslim Forum and no doubt others will be marching together in the big rally for Palestine in London on Saturday 13 January. Readers who would like to join us can email [email protected] for details of rendezvous.
* John Kelly is active in Warwick District local party, a member of the West Midlands regional executive and Secretary of Lib Dem Friends of Palestine.
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8 Comments
Israel might listen to external criticism from various governments around the world ..
But it only really cares about what one administration has to say & that is the US..It will continue along it’s chosen path & it’s obvious that no amount of rightful condemnation from others will make much difference to its actions …We only need to look at the history of UN vetos to realise that ..
This excellent article couldn’t include everything, and didn’t cover the indictment brought to the European Court of Justice (the ECJ) by South Africa. The ECJ has the power to instruct Israel to stop its indiscriminate killing of civilians and other war crimes it’s committing in Gaza. In the longer term, if Israel is found guilty it would be branded a criminal state. Gideon Levy’s depressing depressing assessment of the Israeli people as largely in favour of the slaughter in Gaza suggests all-out sanctions on Israel – of the kind that ended Apartheid in South Africa – will be necessary.
For now, the urgent need is for governments which expressed solidarity with Israel after the Hamas massacre to disabuse it of the crazy notion that compassion for Israel immediately after October 7 is open-ended, even after they have committed grave war crimes in Gaza on a massive scale.
John Kelly – congratulations on an excellent article.
You write correctly that the majority of Tory MPs seem “intent on egging on the Israeli war machine”. It is also interesting that this Government’s scoping document for the negotiations for a post-Brexit trade agreement does not contain a territorial applicability clause for Israel. This means Israel will be able to define its territory according to Israeli, rather than international, law. This will have the effect of making Britain complicit in West Bank annexation and enabling produce from illegal settlements to be included in the agreement. See the report on this from the Balfour Project’s website: https://balfourproject.org/bp/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/BR-International-Law-Report-2023.pdf. Our government could have insert a territorial applicability clause if it had wished. Need I say more?
As I receive more on Israel I disagree on this subject. The 7th just proved how terrible the outcome was for the Jewish community.
I know how the antisemitism is spreading even one Ministers daughter is fearing going to university in Leeds.
For centuries hatred towards the Jewish community has been obvious to say the least.
My mum was Jewish, so I am potentially very sympathetic to Israel. I am also the son of a holocaust survivor and oppose all attempts at genocide, wherever they take place. The events on 7/10 were indeed appalling, but the response by the government of Israel is simply not acceptable either. It looks like an attempt to drive out all Palestinians from Gaza and to turn it into part of Israel. It looks like genocide, even if it isn’t.
Ever since 1948, Israel has operated like an apartheid state, denying its Arab citizens the same rights as Jewish citizens. It has sabotaged every attempt to create a Palestinian state. That is before we even mention the settler movement.
On the other hand Palestinians like Hamas, are no better. They want to destroy Israel and to put it bluntly kill Jews. They too have sabotaged peace talks.
So we have two sides, neither of whom want to make peace and both set on destroying the other. Yet the world keeps arming both sides and their sponsors refuse to get them round the negotiating table.
Anti-semitism and Islamophobia are a product of this continuing war and willingly get worse unless both sides are forced to negotiate and make peace. I see no sign of the happening.
Mick, my mother was also a refugee from the Holocaust, but she was horrified at what was being done to the Palestinians in her name as a Jew.
You say: ‘Ever since 1948, Israel has operated like an apartheid state, denying its Arab citizens the same rights as Jewish citizens. It has sabotaged every attempt to create a Palestinian state. That is before we even mention the settler movement.’ Does that not say it all? It is not two equals. The Palestinians have taken no land or resources belonging to Israel. Hamas was partially created and funded by Israel to prevent the Palestinians coming together to push for a state of their own. What Israel has created in Gaza has been described as a concentration camp with over 2 million people, 50% of whom are children and 70% of whom are refugees from the creation of Israel.
Palestinians have also never sabotaged any just peace process that did not expect them to give even more to Israel.
I’m somewhat baffled by the description of Gaza as an Israeli concentration camp. Clearly they have (had) homes, schools, hospitals, cars and smartphones. A quick google revealed 350,000 cars, suggesting one for every three adults. There are parts of Sheffield less well provided for. And then clearly Gaza got all the investment on top that went in to the war machine.
I don’t quite understand how all those cars got there under a blockade against dual use machinery, or how they can be maintained. But there we are. But this does seem to lend truth to the Israeli argument that the leaders of Gaza could have built a happy prosperous and peaceful state there after 2005 and that they didn’t is not Israel’s fault.
At this point some hardliners will attribute all the crimes of Hamas to Israel, which is a bit like blaming Jews for the Holocaust.
What seems to be missing from the coverage of this disaster is the views of the Palestinean ( and Israeli ) people on what is happening. Some might see this as a successful strategy of making life so unbearable that they don’t have time to reflect on what is going on and why. Similarly an independent media seems to be missing for different reasons.